The dedicated man deserves an ‘A’ for effort at least as he runs and jumps onto a trampoline positioned in front of the hoop while thousands of fans look on at half-time during the Atlanta Hawks playoff loss to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night.

With the chorus of R. Kelly’s I Believe I Can Fly surely ringing out in his mind, the overweight man springs himself off the the trampoline, presumably looking forward to a slam-dunk and a moment of glory.

Unfortunately for the fan, he suffers a total failure to launch, doesn’t even come close to the hoop and lands flat on his face, thankfully on a carefully positioned crash-mat.

Appearing on the website worldstarhiphop.com, the basketball fan’s defeat by gravity has been viewed over 170,000 times by fans laughing at the mans brave misfortune.

Experiencing similar difficulties to his team on Tuesday night, the unnamed fans’s failure to make more than three feet of air after using a trampoline has caused him to become an ironic hero.

‘I commend the guy for even trying the shot in front of thousands of people,’ said Red_Woody on reddit.com

‘I’m a big guy myself and I have nowhere near that confidence.

‘This thread will probably laugh at the fat flop, but I give the guy props.’

Some internet users have even gone as far as to discuss the aerodynamics behind the man’s abject attempts to make the dunk.

‘I was under the impression that weight wasn’t related to gravity,’ said wolfman863 on reddit.

‘As a matter of fact, he probably has more wind resistance keeping him floating slower than a skinny guy.

‘I assume that he just doesn’t have the leg muscle strength to ‘jump’ which is why he appears to drop.’